Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 07-01 Identify the factors that influence managers’ choice of an organizational structure.
Topic: Organizational Development (OD)
88.
Explain briefly the two factors that make technology routine or complicated, according to
Charles Perrow.
According to Charles Perrow, the two factors that determine how complicated or
nonroutine technology is are as follows: task variety and task analyzability.
Task variety is the number of new or unexpected problems or situations that a person or
function encounters in performing tasks or jobs.
Task analyzability is the degree to which programmed solutions are available to people or
functions to solve the problems they encounter.
Nonroutine or complicated technologies are characterized by high task variety and low
task analyzability; this means that many varied problems occur and that solving these
problems requires significant nonprogrammed decision making. In contrast, routine
technologies are characterized by low task variety and high task analyzability; this means
that the problems encountered do not vary much and are easily resolved through
programmed decision making.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-01 Identify the factors that influence managers’ choice of an organizational structure.
Topic: Organizational Development (OD)
89.
Describe job enlargement. What is its significance in an organization?
Job enlargement is increasing the number of different tasks in a given job by changing the
division of labor.
The idea behind job enlargement is that increasing the range of tasks performed by a
worker will reduce boredom and fatigue and may increase motivation to perform at a high
level, increasing both the quantity and the quality of goods and services provided.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-02 Explain how managers group tasks into jobs that are motivating and satisfying for employees.
Topic: Job Enlargement
90.
Discuss four ways in which a manager could redesign the job of a subordinate to enrich
that subordinate’s job.
Job enrichment is increasing the degree of responsibility a worker has over a job in the
following ways:
• A manager can empower the subordinate to find a better way of doing his/her job.
• A manager can encourage the subordinate to develop new skills that could be used in
the job.
• A manager can give the subordinate the responsibility to decide how to react to
unexpected situations.
• A manager can allow the subordinate to monitor and to measure his/her own job
performance.
The idea behind job enrichment is that increasing workers’ responsibility increases their
involvement in their jobs and thus increases their interest in the quality of the goods they
make or the services they provide.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-02 Explain how managers group tasks into jobs that are motivating and satisfying for employees.
Topic: Job Enrichment
91.
According to the job characteristics model, list and define the characteristics that
determine how motivating the job is.
According to the job characteristics model of J. R. Hackman and G. R. Oldham, every job
has five characteristics that determine how motivating the job is. They are as follows:
• Skill variety: The extent to which a job requires that an employee use a wide range of
different skills, abilities, or knowledge
• Task identity: The extent to which a job requires that a worker perform all the tasks
necessary to complete the job, from the beginning to the end of the production process
• Task significance: The degree to which a worker feels his/her job is meaningful because
of its effect on people inside the organization, such as coworkers, or on people outside the
organization, such as customers
• Autonomy: The degree to which a job gives an employee the freedom and discretion
needed to schedule different tasks and decide how to carry them out
• Feedback: The extent to which actually doing a job provides a worker with clear and
direct information about how well he or she has performed the job
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-02 Explain how managers group tasks into jobs that are motivating and satisfying for employees.
92.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a functional structure of organization.
A functional structure is an organizational structure composed of all the departments that
an organization requires to produce its goods or services.
The advantages to grouping jobs according to function are
• First, when people who perform similar jobs are grouped together, they can learn from
observing one another and thus become more specialized and can perform at a higher
level.
• Second, when people who perform similar jobs are grouped together, it is easier for
managers to monitor and evaluate their performance.
• Finally, managers appreciate functional structure because it allows them to create the
set of functions they need in order to scan and monitor the competitive environment and
obtain information about the way it is changing.
93.
Explain the forms of divisional structure and the organization of divisions under it.
Most managers of large organizations choose a divisional structure and create a series of
business units to produce a specific kind of product for a specific kind of customer. Each
division is a collection of functions or departments that work together to produce the
product. The goal behind the change to a divisional structure is to create smaller, more
manageable units within the organization. There are three forms of divisional structure.
When managers organize divisions according to the type of good or service they provide,
they adopt a product structure. When managers organize divisions according to the area of
the country or world they operate in, they adopt a geographic structure. When managers
organize divisions according to the type of customer they focus on, they adopt a market
structure.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-03 Describe the types of organizational structures managers can design, and explain why they
choose one structure over another.
Topic: Divisional Structure
Topic: Job Design
94.
Describe the matrix structure and the concept of the “two-boss employees.”
In a matrix structure, managers group people and resources in two ways simultaneously:
by function and by product. Employees are grouped by functions to allow them to learn
from one another and become more skilled and productive. In addition, employees are
grouped into product teams in which members of different functions work together to
develop a specific product.
Each person in a product team reports to two managers:
• A functional boss, who assigns individuals to a team and evaluates their performance
from a functional perspective
• The boss of the product team, who evaluates their performance on the team
Thus, team members are known as two-boss employees.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-03 Describe the types of organizational structures managers can design, and explain why they
choose one structure over another.
Topic: Task Role
Topic: Task Specialist Roles
95.
Explain the problems present in tall organizations.
As a hierarchy becomes taller, problems that make the organization’s structure less
flexible and slow managers’ response to changes in the organizational environment may
result.
Communication problems may arise when an organization has many levels in the
hierarchy. It can take a long time for the decisions and orders of upper-level managers to
reach managers further down in the hierarchy, and it can take a long time for top
managers to learn how well their decisions worked.
Feeling out of touch, top managers may want to verify that lower-level managers are
following orders and may require written confirmation from them. Middle managers, who
know they will be held strictly accountable for their actions, start devoting too much time
to the process of making decisions to improve their chances of being right. They might
even try to avoid responsibility by making top managers decide what actions to take.
96.
State the differences between a line and staff manager.
A line manager is someone in the direct line or chain of command who has formal
authority over people and resources at lower levels.
A staff manager is someone responsible for managing a specialist function, such as
finance or marketing.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Learning Objective: 07-04 Explain why managers must coordinate jobs, functions, and divisions using the hierarchy of
authority and integrating mechanisms.
Topic: Hierarchy of Authority
Topic: Task Role
Topic: Task Specialist Roles
97.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of “decentralization” in organizational design.
When focusing on decentralization, managers at higher levels give lower-level employees
the responsibility of making important decisions and only manage by exception; thus, the
problems of slow and distorted communication are kept to a minimum. Moreover, fewer
managers are needed because their role is not to make decisions but to act as coach and
facilitator and to help other employees make the best decisions. In addition, when
decision-making authority is low in the organization and near the customer, employees are
better able to recognize and respond to customer needs. Decentralizing authority allows
an organization and its employees to behave in a flexible way even as the organization
grows and becomes taller.
Too much decentralization has certain disadvantages: If divisions, functions, or teams are
given too much decision-making authority, they may begin to pursue their own goals at the
expense of organizational goals. Also, too much decentralization can result in a lack of
communication among functions or divisions; this prevents the synergies that result from
cooperation from ever materializing, and organizational performance suffers.
AACSB: Reflective Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Learning Objective: 07-04 Explain why managers must coordinate jobs, functions, and divisions using the hierarchy of
authority and integrating mechanisms.
98.
Write a brief note on liaison roles, task forces, and cross-functional teams.
Liaison roles, task forces, and cross-functional teams are integrating mechanisms
available to managers to increase communication and coordination.
• Liaison roles: Managers can increase coordination among functions and divisions by
establishing liaison roles. When the volume of contacts between two functions increases,
one way to improve coordination is to give one manager in each function or division the
responsibility for coordinating with the other. Coordinating is part of the liaison’s full-time
job. Furthermore, liaison roles provide a way of transmitting information across an
organization, which is important in large organizations whose employees may know no one
outside their immediate function or division.
• Task forces: When more than two functions or divisions share many common problems, a
99.
Define strategic alliance and network structure. Also, discuss their usage.
• A strategic alliance is a formal agreement that commits two or more companies to
exchange or share their resources in order to produce and market a product. Strategic
alliances are formed because the companies share similar interests and believe they can
benefit from cooperating. Over time, these companies work closely with their suppliers to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the inputs so that the final product produced is
of higher quality and very often can be produced at lower cost.
• A network structure is a series of global strategic alliances that one or several
organizations create with suppliers, manufacturers, and/or distributors to produce and
market a product. Network structures allow an organization to manage its global value
chain in order to find new ways to reduce costs and increase the quality of products—
without incurring the high costs of operating a complex organizational structure (such as
the costs of employing many managers).
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-05 Describe how information technology (IT) is helping managers build strategic alliances and
network structures to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Topic: B2B Network Structures
Topic: Strategic Alliances
100.
Explain how boundaryless organizations operate.
The ability of managers to develop a network structure to produce or provide the goods
and services customers want, rather than create a complex organizational structure to do
so, has led many researchers and consultants to popularize the idea of a boundaryless
organization. Such an organization is composed of people linked by technology—
computers, email, computer-aided design systems, videoconferencing, and cloud-based
software—who may rarely, if ever, see one another face–to-face. People are utilized when
their services are needed, much as in a matrix structure, but they are not formal members
of an organization; they are functional experts who form an alliance with an organization,
fulfill their contractual obligations, and then move on to the next project.
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Learning Objective: 07-05 Describe how information technology (IT) is helping managers build strategic alliances and
network structures to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Topic: B2B Network Structures
Topic: Strategic Alliances